Beacon Sunday Service: October 20th, 2024

Well, good morning. Before we get into just the sermon today, I want to take a moment to reiterate just the thanks for the Beacon family. For a lot of you guys who don't know, I'm pretty new here. This is my third Sunday after uh twenty plus years in Irvine as one of the pastors of Burning Community Church. But we had an installation service last Sunday evening, and just to celebrate and commission my new role at the church. I had about a hundred and fifty uh family members and then uh Berean church members come and join us, and there's like a hundred uh devices that were logged in at the time, so it was a blessing to be commissioned in this way. Um I'll just show you a quick picture. That's us, and that's me in the middle.

And then uh the servant leaders at the church, and there were just uh multiple stories like this on uh social media from my former church members who were very encouraged by how welcoming everybody was. They were very just very thrilled that we were uh we were in a community that would really love on us and just run with us, whatever God has called us to steward. Um there was so much behind the scenes, like your parking. Um Alex was upstairs, probably in the heat, uh cleaning, setting up chairs and all of those things, and so it doesn't go unnoticed, it won't show up in pictures, but it definitely doesn't go unnoticed by the Lord. Um, and I definitely uh were very blessed by that, so thank you.

Um it's a blessing and a privilege and a joy to be your pastor, and uh hopefully um for a long long time. Okay. Uh I want to read the text for today. We are in Titus 1 1 again, and uh I'll be reading all three verses of the introduction from verse 1 to 3 in the LSB, the Legacy Standard, and then uh I'll ask the Lord's uh blessings in prayer after the reading of his word. It reads Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity, but at the proper time manifested his word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.

Uh let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're so glad to be here this morning just to celebrate Christ. And we're here, God, to give you the glory and the worship that you're due and to be fed off of your word and to fellowship with your people. But we also understand, God, that there's a lot that we're bringing to the table. Um, a lot of stress, a lot of uh difficulty, heartache, and just the rigors of day-to-day life, and we're coming also to rest. And so we pray for good rest. We pray for good feeding, and that we would leave here all the more excited to be ambassadors into this world on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we pray that as the word is proclaimed that you would help us to remember everything that you want us to feed off of over the course of the week.

So engage our attentions, engage our hearts and our minds, and we offer up this uh uh this time into your care, into your hands. So would you speak for your servants are listening? We pray all this in Jesus' name. So this is my third pastor, or this is my third sermon here at the Beacon. Uh, we're still in Titus chapter one, verse one, and we will be in Titus verse chapter one, verse one today, and we're gonna be in it uh next week as well. And so far we're averaging one verse per month, and at this rate with 46 verses in Titus, we're on schedule to finish Titus in August of 2028. Uh but rest assured the pace is gonna pick up. Okay, and once we get past this, this is one of the most doctrinally rich uh introductions of all Paul of uh of all of Paul's letters, and once we get past this, we definitely will um take a little bigger chunks, okay?

But um, here's a structure and breakdown of what we've covered so far. We've looked at just the opening line of the epistle, just the seven words in the Greek, and thus far in our first two weeks, we've only looked at Paul's introductions of himself. Okay, we looked at Paul's uh introducing himself as a slave of God, and then as an apostle of Jesus. And oftentimes when we're reading through our Bibles, we skim over these sections, and we don't give it a second thought. Right? Okay, um, and so, but it's important to understand like why does Paul introduce himself in this way? And these designations that he gives himself is not unimportant to the rest of the of the letter. So in that first week, just by way of review, we looked at the words slave of God, and we were reminded of four of God's attributes: his omnipotence, his sovereignty, his love and his holiness.

And we learned what a place of honor and a privilege it is to be called a slave of this all-powerful sovereign and a holy God. Okay. And last week we learned, uh, we spent some time looking at the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. How Jesus is the only way to salvation. We learned last week that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. And we learned what a healthy messenger, apostolos of Christ should look like, and what healthy churches that faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ is supposed to look like. So that was reviewed. So in these seven words, Paul stressing that he has been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God.

His life belongs completely to God. He is God's property. So he is not ashamed to be called slave. And Paul's saying his primarily, his primary calling in service to God as a property and slave, is to serve as an apostle of Jesus Christ, a messenger of Jesus Christ. Paul is given the duty of building the church of Jesus Christ and pointing people to the way of this salvation. Paul's message gets people saved. And the message of the cross, which is foolishness for all who are perishing, it is the power of God and the only means of being reconciled to God. That's Paul's obsession. The gospel is the only message that can reconcile and restore. And an appropriate response to this gospel gets people saved and restored to their creator.

Okay, so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 16 that he cannot help but to preach the gospel. He is compelled to preach the gospel. It is his obsession and chief purpose. And he writes, for if I proclaim the gospel, I have nothing to boast. For I am under compulsion. Woe to me, woe is me if I do not proclaim the gospel. And so he says, Woe is me if I do not proclaim this gospel. He has to preach, because there are elect of God still outside the fold. The elect of God that are outside the fold compel him to proclaim the gospel. And this compelling, he's almost, it's like a knee-jerk reaction. This compelling is going to be very important to keep in mind this week and next week. And it's also going to be super important to remember that the gospel of God cannot be divorced from the doctrine of election.

Not what we prayed about, but election, the theological term. In many ways, the gospel of God begins with the doctrine of election. And Paul is obsessed and he's compelled to preach this gospel to the elect of God. So going back to this, in the opening words, Paul introduces himself as a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then with the word kata, which is translated for, and that's a very important word. Okay, Paul gives the reasons for the purpose of why he's writing this letter to Titus. Okay, and his purposes are twofold. One, it's for the faith of God's elect, and the dispensing of the full knowledge of the truth. The faith of God's elect is one of the reasons he's writing, and then a dispense, like a dispensing of the truth is the second reason why he's writing.

And if you read through the letter, there's a sense of urgency here, as Paul is writing from prison. And if you guys remember, this is Paul's second to last letter that he ever writes before his execution. And it's his last correspondence that we ever know about with Titus. Okay? And in these last words to Titus, his spiritual son, Apostle Paul emphasizes again and again faith and truth. And Paul is exhorting Titus to contend for these two things, for the faith of God's elect and for the truth. And he doesn't waste any words. So this letter is short. It's three chapters, 46 verses, but we'll soon notice that in those three chapters and 46 verses, these two things, the faith of God's elect and the importance of truth are emphasized again and again and again.

Okay? And why are these two things so stressed and so emphasized? Because it appears that faith and truth are being attacked. There appears to be a lot of opposition to both faith and truth. Faith and truth are being undermined. Faith and truth are lacking on the island of Crete, where Titus is stationed. Perhaps the words faith and truth. What they even were, that was being confused. And that's no surprise. That happens in the world around us today. In our world, faith and superstition are almost synonymous things, right? Faith is nothing more than mere superstition. It has become just wishful thinking. So if someone says, Oh, I have faith, it's wishful thinking. In our world today, truth has become relative.

Truth is touted more as like a strong opinion. The more passionately you believe that strong opinion, the more it becomes just fact. So it's not a surprise that faith and truth are confused. The devil, the father of all lies, has always been in the business of distorting truth and deceiving people with lies that are consisting of mostly truths. So the way this the devil lies is he makes something sound like truth without having it be fully truthful. Right? After all, bait has to look presentable. Bait has to look legitimate for a fish to bite on it. The devil disguises himself. What does the Bible say? As an angel of light. He doesn't come at you as a scary thing. He comes at you as a beautiful thing.

He lures people by appealing to whatever feels natural before he devours. So the deception of all of God's creation has always been the devil's greatest passion. He wants all people to exchange the truth of God for a lie. He wants people to hold on to superstition and wishful thinking in the name of faith. He is the deceiver.

And he continues to deceive many people in the church today. So in Matthew chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse, Jesus warns the disciples of the great deception that Satan's going to unleash in the end of times. And Satan's primary target are religious people. He reads, false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, behold, he is there in the wilderness, don't go out. Or if they say to you, Jesus is back, he's in those inner rooms, do not believe them. So these are people who are waiting for Christ's return. Okay. So the devil sends false Christs and false prophets to distort and to deceive.

The devil has been in the business of using signs and wonders and even miracles to deceive and turn people's attentions away from God and towards corruption. Think about this. The devil will use even great wonders. Oh. Can you go back to the slides? I don't know. I'm wondering if I did this.

All the way back to the front.

Oh, too far. Okay. So the devil will use great wonders and counter for counterfeit miracles to deceive. Okay, Deuteronomy 32, 39 says that it's God alone who can heal. But Satan can mimic healings and counterfeit miracles to deceive. And that's a little bit disconcerting. Right. We need not be surprised or panicked, but we do need to be sober and alert. Satan even preys upon the sincere and the religious. Here's a question. Can sincerity and religiosity save you? No. Satan even uses the promise of the second coming of Jesus to deceive the sincere and the religious. So Satan is not omniscient. Satan does not know fully who the elect are. So he's out to get everybody by any means necessary.

So he's out to deceive, discourage, disparage everybody, hoping to get even the elect, if possible, to turn away. And unfortunately, we human beings are not too difficult to deceive. How many of you guys are naturally a little bit more deceivable? Okay. So we there are people who want to be deceived. People want to exchange the truth of God for lies. No surprises, it says in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceivable beyond all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? And all that deceptive tendency, it started with Eve and then Adam. Eve was deceived, and then Adam was deceived. And imagine with me with your sanctified imaginations, Adam and Eve were probably smarter than us because they had the full, they had uncorrupted brains.

Right? We have like what, 10% access? If you're 10% access, you're a genius. But Adam and Eve were tricked. And they're likely way smarter than we were. So we're not as smart. And we're even more decept uh susceptible to folly. We can easily be deceived. And I'm going to demonstrate for you how easy it is for you to be deceived. And I'm gonna have I'm gonna tell you guys a little image, and you have to just paint it in your heads. Alright. Just think of someone like my size. Okay? A man leaves home and he's running. He jogs a little bit, and at the corner he makes a left. He jogs a little bit. At another corner, he makes a left. And then he's jogging. Third corner, he makes a left, and then, oh, he's returning home.

But upon his return home, there are two men who are waiting for him, and they both have masks on. So here's a little bit of a riddle question that I want you to imagine. Why are the two men, or why who are these two men with masks, and why is this man running? Okay, I'm gonna repeat this. A man leaves home running. He goes to the corner, makes a left. He runs a little bit more, he makes another left. He runs a little bit more, he makes another left. And as he's jogging back home, there are two men waiting for him. They both have masks on. Who are these two men and why are they running? Now, raise your hand if you were deceived. Okay. Ignore the fact that a pastor deceived you in the middle of the sermon.

But just okay. What was the deception? My words did not change. The deception was not in what I said. It was actually more in what I didn't say. I just simply left out a word, an important word. If I had just added the word plate, a man leaves home plate running, you would have had a completely different image in your head. Right? So I actually wonder how many false or incorrect or deceptive things are believed by church people today when it comes to the Bible. I wonder how much of our theology is messed up because certain details of God have been left out. I wonder how many sincere people who are convinced of their salvation remain unsaved because, hey, I've shed my tears, I've raised my hand, I've gone to the altar, but yet from the word of God, it's not quite clear that this person is saved.

So that's why it's imperative for every church that bears the name of Jesus Christ to teach the whole counsel of God and to teach the people to keep the whole counsel of God. Amen. So God's truth will be dispensed, the gospel of Jesus Christ will go forth, the sower general generously scatters a seed. Satan can't stop it. But he is obsessed with hindering of the proclamation of truth. So in Mark chapter 4, in the parable of the sower, also known as a parable of the four soils, we see what Satan is doing his best to do. Okay? So this is the description of the first soil. I also like to call this satanic strategy number one. And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How many uh how will you understand all the parables?

The sower sows the word. And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown, and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. So on the island of Crete, where Titus has been assigned, the enemy apparently had been hard at work. And throughout all of church history, in trying to hinder God's salvation work, Satan has employed the following strategies to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So this isn't going to be an exhaustive list, but here are some few of the observable favorites. The first one, deceive people into thinking that there is no God. Psalm 14, 1. Okay, all that we see around us happened by chance. All things came from nothing.

Life was created from non-life. There is no God. There is no judgment. There is no kings. There is no Lord of Lords. You answer to nobody. That's one deception. Second, another strategy that Satan employs. He deceives people into thinking that people can be God or be like God. And this one got even to trouble. I can be like God. My happiness is my chief end. My happiness is God's chief end. I am not here for worship. I am here to be worshipped. God exists for me and by me to love me and to serve me. I deserve glory. I deserve to be celebrated. I deserve happiness. And those who exist around me also exist to fulfill me and make me happy. God wants me to be happy, healthy, and rich. Third.

Satan's strategy is to deceive people into thinking that they are not totally depraved and not in desperate need of saving. So someone might say, hey, I am generally a good person. I am better than most. Others are more depraved than me. I can be good enough to earn God's favor. I'm not perfect, but of course I can be better. And I can pray enough. I can abstain enough. I can give enough. I can serve enough. I can even evangelize enough. And that's in the mind of a lot of people. And salvation by obedience to the law of God or salvation by works, it takes many different forms, but all of it is rooted in satanic deception. All the rest of the world's religions are based on this deception in one way or the other.

Would you guys agree with that? You get what you deserve. That's a deception. As Martin Luther once wrote, the most damnable heresy that ever plagued the mind of man was that he could make himself good enough to deserve to live with a holy God. And last on this non-exhaustive list, his strategy is to deceive people into thinking that Jesus is not the only way. I know of people who profess to be Christians who will say we shouldn't be so exclusive. When we say that Jesus Christ is the only way to be reconciled to God, that there is no other way. How do you feel? There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. When you hear that, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. Do you feel like that's an arrogant thought? Do you feel like that's too narrow-minded a thought? Is that too bigoted an attitude? There's a little discomfort, right? So Satan's strategy has always been deception. And there are strategies constantly lodged against you for your deception and destruction. Are you aware of this? Are you prepared to defend against this? We're never to be afraid of the devil. We're to stand our ground and we're to resist him. And we're called to help others stand their ground, and we're called to help others resist him. And that's going to be one of the main emphases of the Apostle Paul to Titus. So there's a lot of Satan talk today.

But because there is a war for the elect that is going on in the book of Titus and in our world today. So in his epistle to Titus, to combat false teaching and in order to guard against Satan's strategies, Paul charges Titus with the burden of growing, guarding, and stewarding the faith of God's elect. And he's charging Titus with the task of also dispensing truth and placing a high priority in the knowledge of truth because a person cannot become godly without truth. So this is gonna be a two-part sermon on Paul's four there in verse one on Paul's reasoning for writing this letter. So today, with the remainder of our time, we're gonna be looking at what is meant by the words the faith of God's elect.

Okay? And the next week, we're gonna look at truth and how it's related to godliness. So here's today's outline. We will be looking at the word elect and election first, and then its relationship to a person saving faith. So what is election? What who are the elect? What are the elect elected from? And then what are the elected to? And remember, the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be divorced from the doctrine of election. And I would dare to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ even begins with the doctrine of election. So, first, what is this? What is election? It's a bit of a mouthful, but I'm gonna have us take a look at the definition together, and it's as follows. The decree of election is the free and sovereign choice of God made in eternity past to set his love on certain individuals and on the basis of nothing in themselves, but solely because of the good pleasure of his will to choose them to be saved from sin and damnation and to inherit the blessings of eternal life through the mediatorial work of Christ.

That is a mouthful. Okay, but that's the definition. The doctrine of election is one of the most controversial doctrines in Christian theology. The doctrine of election is super uncomfortable because it makes people feel like man has no control, and that man has no choice, and that man is predetermined like some robot. It makes God seem unloving, or it makes God seem like he's playing games with arbitrarily with our lives. And with our broken logic, it almost makes God seem culpable for sin. It feels like then God is either not all powerful, or he's not truly good. An election is a doctrine that greatly upsets our sense of fairness. It offends our pride to the very core. Would you guys agree?

The inability to understand this doctrine, it makes us leaving, like it leaves us feeling very helpless and extremely uncomfortable because we want to understand it. And we feel like we're smart enough to understand it. And we forget that his ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not like our thoughts, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts and our thoughts, but we think that we can understand it. And over history, many people in trying to make the doctrine of election less offensive and more palatable, they've opened themselves up to all kinds of deception. And because it's so offensive to our core, to understand the doctrine of election, we actually need the Spirit's illumination.

So the doctrine of election cannot be fully articulated or accurately understood in the flesh. So no matter how smartly I articulate this thing, there's going to be a part of it that causes you to feel a little bit or a lot of it uncomfortable. But we teach and study this because it's clearly taught in God's word. Amen.

But it feels so offensive that many people try to change it or smooth out this doctrine so that it makes God not an elector. I mean, I wasn't planning for this to be my third sermon in, but we hit it. Okay, so bear with me. We want man in his own strength to be able to choose God. And when people run with that, they end up fashioning God into their own image, and boom, Satan has scored a point. A seed sown on the path has been gobbled up. Are you guys tracking? Okay? So the Arminian doctrine of election tries to smooth this out by saying that God's election is simply God's ratification of the choices that he foresaw individuals would make. I'm gonna save Albert because he's gonna be a man of faith.

I'm gonna save Howard because he's gonna, yeah, he will respond well. I'm not gonna save Peter Chung, because that dude's a doofus. He's gonna harden his heart. So this is sometimes called the foreseeing faith view or the prescient view, where God has a foreknowledge of people's choices, and he foresees how people are going to respond to the message of the gospel, and then he chooses them based on that knowledge of their choosing of him. That is not what is taught in the Bible. Okay, hopefully you're you're kind of tracking. So, what is it? What is election? So that this definition is a mouthful, but I want to put it simply, okay? God chooses those he will save, and he also chooses those he will pass over and leave them in their condemned state.

Okay, that this comforts this setting in.

God's choice not to save, but to leave individuals for wrath and condemnation, there's a term for that. It's called reprobation. First of all, in Matthew chapter 22, verse 14, it says, Many are called. The invitation goes out, but few are chosen. If you try to meditate on this, it's a it takes your mind in all kinds of places. Many are called, many are invited, few are chosen. So this means that God has chosen not to save all men. And he reprobation. The free and sovereign choice of God made in eternity past to pass over certain individuals, choosing not to set a saving love on them, but instead determining to punish them for their sins unto the magnification of his justice, unto the magnification of his justice.

God chooses to save, God chooses to not save. And if you're thinking, wait a minute, that does not seem fair. First of all, you're normal. Secondly, you're absolutely correct. That totally is not fair. It's not just.

Everyone. So you and I have been created by God and for God to love God, to serve God. But you and I, who were created to by God and for God to love God and serve God, we became objects of wrath, targets of wrath, children of wrath, when we rebelled against this holy God after sin entered the world. So Ephesians 2, 1 to 3 reads, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to Satan, the ruler of the power of the air, that the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we too, the Jews. We all formally conducted ourselves according to the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

And we were by nature technon, children, spawned, targets of wrath, even as the rest. So that fleshes out Romans 3.23. This is the outcome of the falling short of the glory of God. Who are the elect then? The elect are those who once were targets and objects of unbridled hatred towards sin, being chosen not just to be spared, not just to be recipients of mercy, but elevated to the status of co-wires with Christ. And that's too good to be true. That's why it's called grace. And this grace, it flattens the playing field. It levels the playing field. Not one person can boast, not one person can compare his sins with someone else's sins and say, I deserve God's grace more than he does. Amen. It levels a playing field.

God's will is perfect. He is perfectly good. And in his love, he elects. And he has elected from before the creation of the world. And I want to read to you a passage that teaches this doctrine to the elect. So if you have put your faith in Christ, you are elect of God. The fact that your heart has inclined itself to believe this and to say amen to this, it is because God has been gracious to you. And this is a doctrine of election that should fill your heart with so much joy. And here it goes. But God. This is one of the biggest butts in the sorry, that's a bad way to say it. But this is one of the most important most pivotal butts in all of Scripture. Do you see it? We were by nature children of wrath.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were just dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that he would spend all eternity being creatively kind, merciful, generous, wonderful, and aweing you as if you were royalty. That should fill you with a lot of humility and confusion.

The older I get, the more I know who I'm not. The older I get, the more depraved I actually feel. But then God loves me anyway.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. This not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Since when? Which God prepared beforehand so that we walk in them. What a mystery. If I have faith in Christ, he ordained this.

And that's mind-boggling. Paul's apostleship, Jeremiah's role as a prophet, God had elected and determined even before they were born. Galatians 1.15, Jeremiah 1.5. So God elects. Amen.

We cannot fully appreciate it. But I hope we're in awe of it in the present. Because for sure. As we move forward for all eternity, we're going to be exponentially in awe of it. When we see face to face, when we know fully, even as we're fully known. But while we're here, and while we only know in part, while we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, it's hard to fully wrap our minds around this.

And what are they elected to? Paul was elected and set apart to blank. Jeremiah was elected and set apart to blank. So what are we elected from and elected to? And here it is. They are elected out of rebellion and from wrath to an intimate knowledge of and a glorious and joyful usefulness to God. You have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and because of Christ, we have the ability to do that in a way that is a fragrant aroma to him. The elect are restored to that purpose and for that purpose. I want to kind of drive a point home that you already probably know. You and I were not saved to escape hell. That's a byproduct. You and I were not saved to escape hell.

Amen. You and I were saved to be useful to the potter for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. So we're moving on to the second part of this. What is faith? In the Ephesians 2 passage that we looked at, the apostle Paul writes that it's a gift. How many guys have faith that Jesus Christ is the only way? You don't need to raise your hand. That he is the only way. You know that's a gift. You didn't logically land at that conclusion. Because your logic is broken, tainted, and stupid. You logically would hate God, fear God, be terrorized by God. But the fact that you believe on this God, and we're going to elaborate on this next week is a gift.

And throughout all of Paul's letters, we see that the very purpose of Paul's apostleship is to bring God's elect to the faith. So what is faith? The author of Hebrews provides us with a definition. And just so that our minds and our definitions are biblical, I want to read this passage for you. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval, and then there's a whole list of people. Okay, in Hebrews 11, often called the hall of faith. So from these two verses, we see that the faith, that faith is the first, it's the assurance of things hoped for. Assurance of things hoped for.

Amen. That is our hope.

And there is an assurance, and there's a conviction of this.

Amen. That he created everything, that he is good. And that it's like it says in Acts 17, 28. And it was cool that our confession kind of read this, but we have just confidence in this unseen God in whom we live and in whom we move and in whom we have our being. Even though we don't see him, we have not physically seen him. As it says in 1 Peter 1 8. We love him. We trust him. And this is written in horrible times for the church. We rejoice in him. And we long to be with him. Where one day we will see him face to face will look like. But he will have satisfied his own wrath to put me to glory so that I will see him face to face, and I will not die.

Because I will be sin free. And I will know him without limits. I will enjoy him without any selfishness. And in this I have assurance. In this I have conviction. 1 Peter 1:8 to 9. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him at present, but believe in him, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving, and it's it's the verb is continuing on. We're receiving as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls. Going back to Satan, remember, his schemes are to deceive people to think one that there is no God. His second favorite strategy is he likes to deceive people into thinking that they are God, that they exist for their glory, their fame, their attention, their happiness.

The third deception that Satan likes to use is that I can earn God's favor by manipulating things correctly. I can fast enough, I can pray enough, I can sacrifice enough. If I lie, if I die and give my life for the poor, God will be approved, or God will approve that in me. That's a deception. Fourth deception he likes to use is to say that Jesus is not the only way, because that's too narrow a road. And then Satan causes people to turn to all kinds of superstitions and self-righteous causes, and he causes them to walk by sight and not by faith. Well, what does the scripture say about the elect? We walk by what? Faith. Faith is the expose on all of these deceptions. God will restore.

He will satisfy his own wrath. And in the end, for all eternity, there will be no more sin. Faith is the expose on all of the deceptions that I just listed. Because faith is founded upon truth. In verse 2 of Titus 1, it says, the God who cannot lie. I'm looking forward to going over that with you. He does not lie.

Holy, holy, holy God loves, elects, orchestrates, and saves. The Old Testament faith, the Old Testament saints, how are they saved? I've actually received this question a lot. How are the people before Jesus saved? Hebrews 11, too. By faith, these men gained approval in the coming Messiah. They believed too that God would conquer sin, that he would satisfy his own wrath, that he would irreversibly and permanently restore man to an intimate knowledge of himself. So simply put, what is faith? It's not just exist, it's not just believing that God exists. Have you ever heard that if you're trying to share the gospel? Oh, I believe God. I believe that God exists. I believe that we are created. That's not faith.

Even the demons believe that, according to James chapter 2. And what do they do? They freak out. They know better than we do. Faith is trust that in God we live and exist and have our being and that he provides for our salvation. Faith is not, believe hard enough, and your wishes will come true. That's satanic deception. I'm going to repeat this because this is important. And there's a lot of people who are in churches who believe this. If I believe hard enough, if I pray hard enough, God will give me a baby. If I pray hard enough, if I believe strong enough, he will cure my mom of cancer. If maybe God is punishing me and got me fired from my job because I didn't have enough faith. That kind of stuff is satanic deception.

Right. We're dumb. The name it, claim it theology is rooted in deception. There are many faithful and faith-filled people who succumb to cancer, who lose their life savings, who lose their jobs. There are many giants of faith who never marry. There are many godly, faith-filled men and women who never have kids. There are many people with great faith whose lives only keep getting harder with each passing stage. Faith is the certain belief that my God is all powerful, that his will is perfect.

That understanding is super important. Faith is of supreme importance. And that's why Paul's writing in Titus. Paul, slave of God, apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith and truth. And it's going to be repeated again and again. And why is faith super important? Verse 6. It is impossible to please God without faith. For those who draw near to God must believe that he is. Some translations actually say must believe that he exists. And that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. And some people stop there. Oh, he is a rewarder. So if I pray hard enough, he will give me a five-story house. A five-bedroom house, more really. If I, if I he'll reward me if I have enough faith. With not only a woman who is not just godly, but bodily too.

Woo-hoo! Right? If I believe hard enough, he's gonna give me this. Let's look at verse 37 to 39. All of these men in this list of faithful giants, they were stoned, they were saunning to, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated. These are men of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground, and I want you to pay attention to verse 39. And all of these having gained approval through their faith, these elect men of God did not receive what was promised. Why is the doctrine of election so important? Because it humbles us. We need humbling.

It causes us to understand that there is no other way outside of Jesus. It teaches us that salvation begins and ends with God. And the great mystery is that God has chosen to draw rebellious sinners unto himself, that Christ is the only means to this restoration, and all it takes is belief. That's absurd. But it's truth. Amazing grace, I feel like is an inadequate word. It's dumbfounding, absolutely foolish grace. And what a glorious thought it is that our election is simply confirmed through my belief. And that election is proven through my perseverance. The second strategy, the second soil, sometimes there's persecution and hardship. People fall away. The third soil, there's the pleasures of this world.

The greed and desire for wealth and laziness. Oh, that's strategy number three. All of those get wiped out. But a true faith-filled seed grows and multiplies 30, 60, 100fold. As Vodibacum says, I'm going to close with this. Hell will be filled with people who didn't smoke, didn't cuss, may have even been baptized. Why? Because none of those things make someone a Christian. You are not a Christian because of any modified behavior or morality. You don't become a Christian just because you go to church. That's superstition. You're a Christian because you believe and you are in awe of election. You don't hate it. And you don't call it unfair. You love it and you call it unfair.

Satan is going to ever be on the attack to convince you and to convince others that you can save yourself, that you can preserve yourself. It's only in Christ Jesus. There is no other name given to men under heaven by which we must be saved. Amen.

This gift of love and righteousness. Scorn by the ones he came to save.

As Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him was laid. Here in the death of Christ, I live. I live.

When we look at the cross of Christ and why the full knowledge of the truth is so important for those who are in Christ. This week, if you're a believer, I pray that this doctrine of election will feed you and fill you with joy, awe, and great thanks, no matter what circumstances. May it cause you to worship. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we're so thankful for your truth. I pray that you would continue to expose the various deceptions that are employed against us by the proclamation of your truth. And as we submit to your truth, cause us to be reverent, cause us to be compassionate, cause us to be holy in the way we lived our lives. And I pray that you would grow for yourself a people in this church, in this community, that will be great ambassadors for Christ who carry the gospel into the areas in and around this city.

So we thank you, Lord, for just the reminder this morning that you are the audience, that we are here to worship you because you have saved us unto yourself. And we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.